A Few Damn Good Blogs

• Animal rights advocate Patrick Battuello writes a wonderful animal rights Blog for the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union. Please have a look at it, if you get a chance. Battuello is a business owner and vegan, and his Blog is one of the most compassionate and insightful I've ever read. The latest Blog entry, titled "On Luna and a Nameless Smithfield Pig," almost brought tears to my eyes. Thank goodness Battuello is fighting the good fight with his Blog. Not only is it extremely moving, but he gets a lot of interesting comments that highlight some of the debates and differing opinions about animal rights. The Blog has been going since last year and I had a chance to peruse some of the other entries. It is truly wonderful work.

• After rushing out to the bookstore to buy her vegan cookbooks, I've become a huge Sarah Kramer fan. Sarah is based out of Victoria, British Columbia, and she posts videos on YouTube (please subscribe if you get a chance!) and on her combination Blog/Website Go Vegan.net. I'm trying out some her recipes as we speak. Sarah is a real kindred spirit: A fellow punk (I know, I know - I no longer have my teenage mohawk, but, hey, once a punk, always a punk), a fan of alternative music, a humanist vegan/animal rights advocate, a wonderfully upbeat person and a great cook! Oh yeah, and she's a fellow Canadian. Her splendid cookbook, La Dolce Vegan, is pictured above. Keep up the great work, Sarah! You have a lot of fans out there. Add me to the list.

• Pet lovers will cherish the Blog Pethacker. Bookmark this sucker for the latest in pet news and issues having to do with animal advocacy. Did I mention that it is loaded with adorable animal images? The folks at Pethacker clearly come at this issue from an animal rights perspective. The Blog features a particularly outstanding post about animal abuse in China. Folks, if you think we've got problems in North America, take a look at China's abysmal animal abuse record. It is extensive and it goes way back. And as long as there is a totalitarian regime running that nation, things aren't going to change there anytime soon. But I digress. You'll enjoy Pethacker. The posts are well written and the Blog is updated numerous times a day. Like this Blog, it hasn't been around very long, but what it lacks in longevity, it more than makes up for in regular updates.